A 15 year old Nigerian girl has been offered admission to the prestigious Harvard University in United States of America, She is Saheela Ibraheem, 15 year old daughter of a Nigerian immigrant family living in New Jersey, United States. The Harvard University new intake is the latest media sensation.Since news broke about Saheela’s incredible acceptance to 13 of American’s prestigious Universities, local and International media have taken interests in the teen’s success story.A source at Wardlaw-Hartridge high school, who fears that media interests in the young Nigerian-American is fast becoming overwhelming and could be a distraction during her upcoming exams said that about a dozen media organizations are schedule for possible interviews with Saheela. According to the source “She [Saheela] is amazing and because she is well spoken, media organizations wanted to have live interviews with her”.In 2010, Saheela applied to 14 schools that includes some of America’s Ivy Leagues. All, but Yale, offered her admission. This includes, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Cornell, Brown, Williams College, Stanford, University of Chicago, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Washington University in St. Louis and Harvard, which she settled on after a convincing visit to the university’s campus. In an interview with Fox 5, New York, Saheela’s mother, Shakirat, attributes her daughter’s academic success to her interest in learning and knowing more. According to Shakirat,”When you teach her 1, 2, 3 she wants more,… When you teach her 1 through 5, she’d say how about this.”Her dad, Sarafa, a graduate of Nigeria’s own ivy school, University of Ibadan, is a financial analyst and vice president at a major Financial group in New YorkBesides her academic excellence, Saheela actively plays soccer, softball and the trombone. Nigerians have reacted to the good news. Bukky Adekanbi, a Nigerian residing in New York said.“It is always joyful to hear that Nigerians are doing great things around the world regardless of how bad some international media tries to portray us. We Nigerians here in America are proud of Saheela and her parents,”Saheela who plans to study neuroscience or neurobiology – scientific study of the nervous system. said “It all comes down to the support I’ve had at home, from my parents, even my brothers being there every step of the way.”VanguardRelated stories: Video – University in Canada high acceptance rate for Nigerians despite tough immigrationChimamanda Adichie at 2009 TED Conference

Reader Comments (2)

am proud to hear this when talking about nigeria in good things and i pray that after her school let united state allow her to come and apply what she learn to us nigeria her fatherland my daughter please try to work more harder than before

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OUR BLACK STANDARD OF BEAUTY!

BLACK-SKINNED WOMEN: QUEEN MOTHERS OF THE BLACK RACE AND ALL BEAUTY!
Why do I sing Praises of your Beautiful, Black, ebony,velvet skin,”Blacker than the sky at midnight”{1},your full mushroomed mouth, your beautiful broad nose, your generous “Congo hips” {2}and full-flowered backside? Because for too long many of the Black Race have abused, dishonored you, degraded and denied you your crown, Queen of Queens,Queen Mother of the Black Race, Black Beauty Supreme! From you all the beauty of the Black Race springs forth.In fact all the world’s beauty springs from you,Mother of all beauty of all the races of the world! Your Black midnight,licorice,dark black chocolate,beauty, is Blackness concentrated in your beautiful “Black-blueberry”{3} face!
First in the order of creation is always given respect by Afrikan tradition. The 1st wife, the 1st elder, the 1st kingdom, the 1st original inhabitants, of the earth-all are considered with honor. So it should be with Black Beauty-our darkest -skinned Sisters are the 1st Mothers of the Universe-Black as a color came before all the many tones of brown,red,yellow and white. But for too long our Dark-skinned Queens have not been given the respect and place of honor they deserve. IN FACT THE WHITE BOY HAS INTIATED the cycle of reversing the true order of things by turning upside down the pyramid of Beauty, and placing white-light on top and relegating the most beautiful Black-skinned Beauties to rock bottom!
So Black people have been taught well how to deny our most
beautiful one her crown, taught how to reject our Blackest, most Afrikan features, full lips and nose and mouth and woollest hair, for the weaker characteristics of the white race. Shame on Black people! When will we wake up to this Black Beauty concentrated, from whence all our lesser beauty comes. When will we give the crown of crowns,the throne of thrones, to the Blackest Queen of Queens?
Most of us who suffer from”mulatto-mentality” and “yellow fever”, as Fela, our great Nigerian Musician calls it, will go on and on about what about us lighter queens-aren’t we/they beautiful too, yet you/we should be aware that such queens have gotten all the play in the past and that even in Black Egypt one of the reasons for its downfall was the allowing the lighter ones of the race, to place themselves above the rest of us in the name of lightness and pride of light-closer/to/whiteness. So if we’re yellow,to light brown/red, then we should give respect where respect is due and not live off of the artificial white thrill of having “white features” as if it is an advantage. Where would you be without your BLACKEST great Grandmother? We should honor the Blackest part of ourselves, thus giving us true pride of Blackness, not verbal signifyin’ but real testifyin’ that BLACK is beautiful! If the Blackest, most Afrikan-featured Sister isn’t respected as the Supreme Beauty of the Race,the Black woman’s beauty is not really respected at all for what it really is(only in terms of how closer to white we look). We all reflect the strengths of this concentrated beauty in ourselves, all the manifestations of how Blackness can present itself are seen in our faces. Down to the milk-lightest of us, our Blackness is what dominates us whether physically or mentally. But the Mother is greater than the child and so the Blackest is greater than all the other tones of the Black Race. If we don’t respect our Blackest Queen, we don’t respect our True Black selves. We must have a Black value for BLACKNESS in features and skin tone. We must have a Black Standard of Beauty based on the Black-skinned woman. ALL PRAISES DUE TO OUR BLACK-SKINNED QUEEN-MOTHERS!
Sister Yeye Akilimali Funua Olade
1981,Lagos,Nigeria
BLACK NOTES: Let me give tribute to Brother Damu,House of Umoja(San Francisco) for{1}
{2}Brother O.O. Gabugan in the poem “Black Queen For a Day”,{3}Sister Sonia Sanchez in her poem “,Queens of the Universe”,for the quoted words used in the first part of this article.

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GABOUREY SIDIBE IS A BIG BLACK SKINNED BEAUTY WHO HAS BROKEN THE IMITATION WHITE GIRL GLASS STANDARD OF BEAUTY!